book of old days

Chapter 251
After leaving the university, Sean called a carriage. He wanted to go directly to Yulia, but after thinking about it, he asked the driver to go to Butcher Street.

Martin looked very excited to see Sean visit.

"You're finally here, come in, come in!" Martin said, letting Sean into the room.

Sean said, "Have you made any new discoveries?"

"Yes, a very amazing discovery, come with me!"

As Martin spoke, he opened a closed warehouse door. As soon as Sean walked in, he saw four huge worm boxes in the room in front of him, which were unprecedentedly huge.

"After you left, I did a lot of experiments and collected a lot of data. The more I researched, the more I discovered the magic of this worm." Martin said, leading Sean to a worm box, and he could see it through the glass. Many different kinds of insects are kept inside.

Locusts, praying mantises, beetles, crickets... At first Sean thought that Martin was playing a bug war, but he soon realized that this was not the case. Although these bugs were of different types, they did not intend to fight each other at all, and they stayed together peacefully. Dirt and stones build nests.

"Look, these worms, although they are completely different species, have different biological habits and recipes, but after being symbiotic with worms, they will not attack each other. It seems that worms make them into the same group, a Cross-species social collectives, they can coexist peacefully, even if they are on each other's diet, and even cooperate to build territories."

Martin said, put on canvas gloves, and took a mouse out of a box, and he fed the mouse a worm.

Soon, the mouse seemed to be a bit different. It stopped struggling and lay peacefully in Martin's hands. Martin threw the mouse into the worm box in front of him.

Facing the sudden appearance of the intruder, the bugs didn't feel nervous at all, they gathered around the mouse and greeted each other, and then the mouse joined the construction army.

"See, it's amazing that even two very different creatures, insects and mice, couldn't prevent the connection between this population."

Sean was also a little surprised. He only knew that humans who were symbiotic with worms could reach a tacit understanding, but he didn't expect that they could even cross species.

In this case, doesn't it mean that Ulysses can not only unify mankind, but even unify the whole world, achieving the true unification of the world.

But if this is the case, how should the food be solved?If tigers and sheep are symbiotic with worms, they will not attack each other, but sheep can eat grass, so what will tigers eat?

At this time, Martin took out another mouse and threw it in, but this time it was just an ordinary mouse. , and even the mouse, all rushed towards the unlucky mouse.

With sharp teeth, pincers, and sickle feet, the worms bit the mouse in front of them in any attacking way, and even the same kind that was symbiotic with worms showed no mercy. In less than 2 minutes, this unlucky mouse died. It has turned into a pool of broken bones and blood on the ground, completely eaten up.

"Well, do you see what the problem is?"

Sean nodded, "That is to say, all the creatures that are symbiotic with worms form a society, an exclusive society!"

"That's right, all those who are symbiotic with worms are compatriots, while those who are not symbiotic are just food, they will unite to kill them, as food, eat some of them, and reserve some of them, they seem to already have Some wisdom, and trying to build a stable ecosystem."

Martin said and pointed to the depths he was rushing towards, a lair surrounded by stones and mud.

"There's a lot of 'food' in there that isn't killed, it's actually being raised in captivity."

Xiao En looked in through the gap in the nest, and sure enough, he saw some insects and mice without legs struggling inside.

Xiao En nodded, and asked his previous doubts, "What if there are only symbiotic creatures in the worm box? What will happen if they have no food?"

A society can function well without external pressure, but if a crisis occurs, can such a society continue to operate?
"Actually, I've already considered this." Martin said, pulling Sean to another eco-box.

This is experimental group No. [-], which I call the Barren Kingdom, and the previous one was experimental group No. [-] — the original kingdom.

As part of the worm experiment, only the worm symbionts existed in the barren kingdom. They have been starved for several days without any additional food, but they seem to have found a solution. "

In the worm box, a frog is being eaten by several other worms and mice.

It looked calm, without the slightest sign of resistance.

"This frog was also symbiotic, and it appears that it chose to volunteer itself as food for its other 'siblings'."

Sean looked at the frog's missing half of its face, which was still being eaten, and suddenly felt a creepy feeling.

Martin is still explaining, "I have been observing for several days, and I can probably see some rules. Those who have no value to the ethnic group and who are difficult to adapt to the surrounding environment will always be sacrificed first, and of course those who eat a lot They are trying to extend the duration of the group as much as possible. There were 28 individuals in this box at first, but now there are only 21 left. To be honest, I am curious which one they will eventually leave, but according to this Speed, it will probably take another week or two to get an answer."

Then, Martin took him to the third box.

"This is the No. [-] experimental group, which I call the Kingdom of Abundance. I have put a lot of food into this worm box, which is enough for their daily consumption and even has a large surplus. I am observing whether it will induce some special behavior ecological response."

Sean nodded and observed carefully. The box was obviously divided into two parts. Dozens of creatures like insects and mice lived on the outside, while the other part was divided into several different areas. Many Rats, cockroaches, and insects with their legs bitten off lie there, making meaningless calls.

There are also some bread crumbs, minced meat and the like, which are piled up in different categories.

Functional areas seem to have begun to appear in this mini kingdom. After having enough food, the symbionts here began to pursue something other than survival.

Build miniature weird buildings, with straight and plain passages between areas, each area has a 'door', blocked by a stone or soil block, and even stronger individuals serve as guards, guarding each main road.

Sean even saw a beetle rubbing its claws against a clod of soil, grinding it into an unconventional spherical shape, but he didn't know what it was doing.

Xiao En observed for a while, and the more he watched, the more frightened he became.

He highly doubts that, given enough time, these disparate creatures would evolve into a weird civilization.

Sean suddenly remembered something, "Wait a minute, where did you get so many worms?"

In the meatballs he gave Martin before, there were only a few dozen worms at most. Even if a single worm could symbiotically inhabit one target, it could only symbiotically infect dozens of targets. But looking at the boxes in front of him, the symbiotic creatures were at least There are hundreds of symbiotes in existence.

"I found a way for worms to reproduce."

He pointed to the depths of the No. [-] worm box, which was an independent isolation area. A mouse and a large and scary cockroach stood guard at the door. In the shadow of the worm box lid, Sean saw a It was a strange creature. It seemed to be some kind of beast, but its body was covered with lump-like tumors. After carefully identifying it for a while, Sean realized that it should be a mouse, a surprisingly fat mouse.

It was lying on the sand right now, eyes closed, curled up into a ball, surrounded by food.

"This mouse is the largest of all the symbionts. After three consecutive days of receiving sufficient and surplus food, the symbionts in the kingdom of abundance began to try to reproduce. This mouse was sent to this separate room , and this strange change occurs.

I guess it should be voluntary, based on the principle of fairness, it has the most meat, the largest size, and can reproduce the most worms, so it was selected as a seedbed, and the worms breed and multiply in its body, and evolved that strange The ootheca, it looks like it's almost done. "

Sean stared at the tumor on the fat mouse's body, which looked very similar to the original meatball, but much smaller.

The outer skin of the tumor is very thin, and the red flesh is slightly transparent. Through the red skin, tiny worms can be vaguely seen wriggling inside.

A sarcoma seemed to have matured, and it fell off the mouse. Immediately, a spider crawled out from the corner, wrapped the sarcoid with silk thread deftly, and dragged it out.

Sent to an empty nest next door, a praying mantis was dragged in. It lost two legs, so it could only crawl on the ground with difficulty. Seeing the sarcoma, the praying mantis hesitated for a moment, but the biological inability let it go. He took a bite.

The moment the meat ball was bitten, a worm slammed into its head, and in the blink of an eye, it got into the mantis' body, and soon the mantis' broken legs grew out again.

It quickly crawled out of the lair and joined other symbionts.

"They are growing their own group!" Sean was dumbfounded.

Martin nodded, showing an indescribably excited expression, "That's right, how about it, it's amazing."

It's more than amazing, it's simply horrifying.Looking at the worm boxes in front of him, Sean seemed to be looking at several time bombs, a huge threat to the entire human race.

Just a group of symbiote bugs gave him this feeling of fear, not to mention that Ulysses was controlling the entire Sword Fort. Once he was allowed to complete it, the ending would be unimaginable.

Seeing that Sean's face became more and more ugly, Martin couldn't help but patted him on the shoulder, "So——are you still going to tell me the origin of these worms?"

Sean sighed: "What's the point even if you know."

"At least I can try to deduce their meaning."

"Existence meaning?"

Martin nodded, "Any creature has its own meaning, it may seem unreasonable or even weird, but as long as it exists, it must have its reason.

In the far east, in the ancient country known as Deseru, there is a kind of ants, which is particularly interesting. It is a desolate desert area, and there is a great lack of water. In order to reserve water, the local ants have evolved a special mutant—— ——Bucket ants, they will crawl to the deepest part of the nest, hang on the wall of the nest, and then they will drink a lot of water, and its lower body will grow bigger and bigger, like a huge water bag, the meaning of its existence is As a living water sac, when drought comes, the bucket ant will squeeze water from its body to nourish other ants.

The most amazing thing is that all bucket ants are born voluntarily, just like the queen.

I have such a guess about this, although the queen is the ruler in name, and the bucket ants are just buckets, but the queen and the bucket ants are essentially the same, they are both tools for the continuation of the group, and they serve together at a higher level of existence. "

"A higher level existence? What is that?"

"I call it-swarm consciousness, this is just my speculation, have you ever seen a large group of birds?

I have observed the tricks of birds in the islands of the South, where I observed a small finches.

This kind of bird often forms a huge flock of tens of thousands of birds. They have no leader, but they will operate according to some magical laws. Tens of thousands of birds are mixed together and fly without any confusion. And collide, as if there is an overriding consciousness manipulating everything.

Every bird is an integral part of this vast consciousness, some sort of living machine.

Perhaps there is something like that for every colony of enormous numbers, such as ants—and these worms. "

Sean was stunned when he heard this, this guess is really weird.

But when I think about it carefully, I feel inexplicably that there is a slight possibility. According to Ulysses, the individuals who are symbiotic with worms can always reach a consensus and understand each other. Isn't this a "cluster consciousness" in a certain sense? what?

I just don't know if this collective consciousness is a phenomenon, or there really is such a 'consciousness'.

"Then why not experiment?"

"what?"

"I mean, if you want to know if there is such a thing as what you call 'swarm consciousness,' isn't the only way to do it?"

Martin smiled wryly and said, "I've considered this issue, but I didn't think about how to conduct the experiment. Should I say hello to them?"

"Why not." Sean said with a serious expression: "If these worms really obey a 'cluster consciousness', a higher-level existence, then this existence must be intelligent, right? Maybe it's very smart Well, then it might not be impossible to learn our language.”

He said, looking at the busy worms in the worm box, "Maybe when we are observing these worms, that thing is also observing us." For a moment, the symbionts seemed to pause collectively.

However, Xiao En blinked his eyes, and what he saw was that the orderly symbiont society continued to operate, and the momentary pause before seemed to be just an illusion.

Xiao En looked at those busy symbionts, and his expression became more serious the more he looked at it. At first it was just a thought, but at this moment, he felt a little uneasy—could he have guessed it?
No matter how you look at it, you feel suspicious, as if every bug, every mouse is acting and pretending.

He walked up to the box.

Suddenly he laughed: "Hehe, I guessed it right, there is no need to pretend anymore, I have already sensed your existence, so what should I call you?"

He didn't hold out any hope, just made a random nonsense.

However, in the next second, those spiders, mice, and cockroaches... stopped moving at the same time, and they quickly gathered together to form a strange pattern. Sean didn't pay much attention at first, but suddenly, he found that it seemed to be a strange pattern. One letter - H.

The bugs changed shape quickly, this time it was—E.

The third letter was L, followed by another L. By this time, Sean had already realized what the last letter was.

O.

Connected together is HELLO.

Sean's heart trembled, and his heart slowed down by a half-beat - hey, he was really guessed right.

"It's talking to us! You're right! You're actually right! No, I was right!" Martin's eyes widened, both excited and terrified.

"It's group consciousness, it's group consciousness, this is actually true!"

Sean's expression was equally dignified, "Who are you?"

The symbiotes were in motion again—in swarms.

(End of this chapter)